Watch the Full Story
When the City of Milwaukee set out to modernize its debt management process, the goal was simple: replace an outdated, cumbersome system with something more efficient and user-friendly.
What they discovered was just how much time and effort they would save across multiple departments from slashing reporting time from days to minutes to eliminating key-person risk.
For Joshua Benson, Capital Finance Manager for the City of Milwaukee, the impact was immediate. With DebtBook, Milwaukee streamlined complex debt allocations, improved collaboration, and empowered city officials with real-time access to critical financial data, allowing them to make informed decisions faster than ever before.
The Background
Managing debt for a major city is no small task, especially when you’re a team of one. Joshua Benson oversees Milwaukee’s entire debt program, balancing a complex mix of issuances, refundings, and funding sources.
Before implementing DebtBook, the city relied on DBC Debt Manager, which had been in place since 2003. While Joshua was familiar with the platform, he knew new hires would struggle to navigate it.
“Our legacy system took specialized knowledge to be able to go in there and figure out what you were looking for. And then you had to take that information and compare it with existing spreadsheets,” Joshua said. “Now for me, that's not an issue, but that's not something I can give to an analyst and say, ‘hey, pull whatever we spent on the parking fund in 2023’ because it's just too challenging for them to go through and understand all the different moving parts.”
With only three authorized users, limited accessibility, and a steep learning curve, Milwaukee’s debt management system posed serious key-person risk.
Joshua knew it was time to modernize.
The Challenge
Milwaukee needed a solution that would:
- Eliminate key-person risk by making debt data more accessible.
- Streamline reporting and simplify data retrieval.
- Reduce the time spent on financial reporting and budget preparation.
- Provide self-service capabilities to various city departments.
“I’m a division of one at this point. If I were to, knock on wood, win the lottery, then the city would really be without somebody who could get the information we need to run our debt program,” Joshua explained. “We needed to modernize, find something more user-friendly, easier to learn, and provide more support available to implement as a new solution for the City of Milwaukee's debt.”
The Solution
DebtBook provided a centralized, intuitive debt management platform that eliminated the inefficiencies of Milwaukee’s previous system.
The city evaluated five or six alternatives before selecting DebtBook’s Debt Management solution for its modern interface, powerful capabilities, and ease of use.
“Some competitors were more in line with the outdated platform we were using before. Some were more user-friendly, like DebtBook, but lacked the power and capabilities that DebtBook had,” Joshua shared.
The Impact
Eliminating Key-Person Risk with Centralized Debt Data and Unlimited User Access
Before DebtBook, Milwaukee’s budgeting process required multiple handoffs between departments, creating long turnaround times.
“A request for debt data could take two to three hours, involving back-and-forth emails, data compilation, and spreadsheet updates. Now, with DebtBook, the budget team can pull the data they need in five minutes,” Joshua said.
DebtBook’s unlimited user access allows city departments—including general accounting, budgeting, and city development—to retrieve the data they need without going through Joshua.
"One of the biggest advantages of DebtBook is unlimited user access, allowing teams across the city to pull the data they need without relying on me,” Joshua shared.
“The general accounting team can now access roll-forward data for audits and note preparation, while the city development department can easily track debt service allocations for each tax incremental district. This was something that was previously buried in a massive Excel spreadsheet.”
Beyond improving accessibility, DebtBook’s ease of use and centralized data management have fundamentally changed the way Milwaukee handles its debt information, eliminating key-person risk and making critical data instantly available.
The old system required a lot of institutional knowledge to use effectively, but now any authorized team member can access the information they need in a user-friendly platform.
“In prior years, if someone needed debt service data for budgeting, they’d ask me. I’d then have to compile everything, update the spreadsheet, and send it back. Now, with DebtBook, they can click a few buttons and get it instantly without the risk of altering anything, since they have view-only access. I think that's going to be a very positive room for future growth for the city.”
Simplifying Tax Increment District Management and Debt Allocations
Milwaukee manages 117 tax increment districts (TIDs), each with its own unique funding sources and debt allocations. Historically, this information was stored in a massive Excel spreadsheet dating back to the early 1990s.
“We manage refundings, partial refundings, lines of credit and commercial paper that are used to refund for 10 days until we are able to get proceeds on a refunding deal,” Joshua shared. “So there's a lot of moving pieces and in order to accurately account for that, it takes a lot of time and energy to update every year.”
With DebtBook, this multi-day manual process was reduced to just 30 minutes.
“It takes maybe 30 minutes to run the report on DebtBook, export it to Excel, spot check some of the data and say, ‘Yep, this looks right, we have the report done.’ So DebtBook took something from three to four days to complete, down to potentially 30 minutes.”
Milwaukee’s bond issues involve multiple funding sources across various departments. Now, DebtBook’s allocation tools eliminate the need for manual tracking and spreadsheet updates.
"Under our old system, entering a new debt issue could take half a day to a full day. With DebtBook, it takes 30 minutes to an hour. And when it comes to reporting, instead of piecing together data from different spreadsheets, I can generate a report instantly,” Joshua shared.
Beyond just data entry, DebtBook has drastically reduced the time spent on budget-related requests.
“Before DebtBook, it probably took me 30 minutes to finish between getting an email from the budget team, pulling the data, updating their spreadsheet, and getting it back to them. But on their end, they had already spent two hours looking at it and then needed to spend another 15 to 20 minutes after I sent the information back to them to put it back into their spreadsheet," said Joshua.
"You could take a process that realistically took the city about three hours and take it down to five minutes if they could do it themselves with DebtBook.”
Streamlining Refunding Transactions and Debt Tracking
The city's previous process for tracking refundings was cumbersome and outdated.
“The main problem we had with tracking refundings comes down to the old outdated system we had,” Joshua explained. “We had to create a defeasance transaction or a refunding transaction in a separate portal within the software, then manually link it to the outstanding bonds being retired. That process was not intuitive and required extra time and effort to ensure everything was correctly tied together.”
In addition to managing refunding transactions within the previous system, Milwaukee also tracked refunding monitors manually in Excel, often relying on their municipal advisor for calculations.
“With DebtBook, the entire process is much more streamlined,” Joshua said. “Now, we can simply select the outstanding debt, link it to the refunding, and it’s good to go.”
Looking ahead, Joshua is particularly excited about the upcoming enhancements to DebtBook’s sizing platform, which will further simplify refunding analysis and debt sizing.
A More Flexible Approach to Debt Sizing and Scenario Modeling
One of the biggest limitations of Milwaukee’s previous system was the complexity of modeling different debt scenarios for refundings or new issuances. The process required using both DBC Finance and DBC Debt Manager, which were not user-friendly for new employees.
“With DebtBook’s Sizing feature, I'm very excited that I don't have to rely on my municipal advisor for every little number run because I'm the type of person who likes to tinker. I like to see different options, I like to tweak them to get to where I want to go. And I understand having been on that side of the table that it can be a little cumbersome for them to receive ten different scenario requests and then five more and then maybe another three as you're fine tuning things,” Joshua explained.
“Having that ability to do that in-house, not having to build out the debt sizing in Excel, which can be a little bit cumbersome and a little ugly, is something I'm very excited for moving forward.”
DebtBook’s intuitive interface will also make it easier for new team members to step in and perform scenario modeling with minimal training.
“I feel confident that I could send a new senior financial analyst into DebtBook and say, ‘Create five different scenarios with these assumptions,’ and they’d be able to get me something within an afternoon,” Joshua said. “That’s a level of efficiency we just didn’t have before.”
By eliminating manual processes and reducing reliance on external advisors for every adjustment, DebtBook’s Sizing feature will give Milwaukee greater control over its debt management strategies. This will make it easier to adapt to changing market conditions and optimize future refundings.
A Smooth Implementation & a Strong Recommendation
Milwaukee’s transition to DebtBook was seamless, thanks to a dedicated implementation team that handled the bulk of the data migration. The team worked to recreate the city’s EMMA profile, ensuring a smooth transfer of information.
For other municipalities considering an upgrade, Joshua has one key takeaway:
“I would recommend any municipality look into the solution that DebtBook provides. It is very user-friendly, streamlined. It's replacing outdated Excel spreadsheets. It's replacing old outdated software. It's helping you become more modernized and it's something you'll be able to pick up and use from day one.”
